The Peninsula Campaign occurred in Virginia in the spring of 1862. Union General George B. McClellan set out to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond but failed. This loss frustrated northerners and was seen to have prolonged the war; both of which laid the groundwork for Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. After McClellan’s military failures, soldiers, politicians, and abolitionist blamed the defeat on his refusal to liberate slaves. Emancipation was seen not as a humanitarian gesture but as a matter of military necessity. Brasher shows that slaves and their actions during the Peninsula campaign led to new strategy tactics of both armies and that resulted in the Union demand for emancipation as a military need more convincing.
